Autocomplete fails while using zsh.

[evshary]

Bug report

Required Info:

• Operating System:
  • Ubuntu 18.04
• Installation type:
  • binaries
• Version or commit hash:
  • Dashing / Eloquent
• DDS implementation:
  • ALL
• Client library (if applicable):
  • N/A

Steps to reproduce issue

I use zsh as my shell, but I find some problems while using <tab> to autocomplete.

• While I type ros2 run <tab>, it works well.
• However when I type ros2 run d<tab>, it can't show the packages which starts with 'd'.

Additional information

After some debugging, I find that the behavior is related to argcomplete library in Python 3.
If I remove the library rm -rf ~/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/argcomplete*, zsh works well again.
I'm not pretty sure what the root cause is.
Maybe argcomplete library does not support zsh well.

[dirk-thomas]

The fact that you have argcomplete under ~/.local/ indicates that you installed it via pip rather than (or in addition to) the Debian package.

Please share the version numbers of argcomplete reported by these two command:

• pip3 freeze | grep arcomplete
• dpkg -l | grep argcomplete

[evshary]

@dirk-thomas You're right. I've install argcomplete with the command python3 -m pip install -U argcomplete according to the tutorial before.

My result for the two commands:

$ pip3 freeze | grep arcomplete
# Nothing output
$ dpkg -l | grep argcomplete
ii  python3-argcomplete                                 1.8.1-1ubuntu1                                  all          bash tab completion for argparse (for Python 3)
ii  python3-colcon-argcomplete                          0.3.3-1                                         all          Completion for colcon command lines using argcomplete.

I guess you want to see the version of argcomplete under ~/.local/

$ python3 -m pip freeze | grep argcomplete
argcomplete==1.11.1
colcon-argcomplete==0.3.3

[dirk-thomas]

I can reproduce the problem with Eloquent (using 5.4.2-3ubuntu3.1). In Foxy it is working though (using 5.8-3ubuntu1).

I think this is a duplicate of kislyuk/argcomplete#258. Either you use a newer version of zsh or you have to patch the function _bash_complete manually (zsh-users/zsh@e2f793e):

• type which _bash_complete

• copy-n-past the whole function, but insert the -1 to the following line:

  • Before: (( COMP_POINT = 1 + ${#${(j. .)words[1,CURRENT]}} + $#QIPREFIX + $#IPREFIX + $#PREFIX ))
  • After: (( COMP_POINT = 1 + ${#${(j. .)words[1,CURRENT-1]}} + $#QIPREFIX + $#IPREFIX + $#PREFIX ))

[dirk-thomas]

@j-rivero to work on getting a patch upstream.

[evshary]

@dirk-thomas Thank you for the suggestion. The patch works perfectly!!!
It frustrated me a long time about the argcomplete.
You can close the issue if you think it's OK.

[dirk-thomas]

You can close the issue if you think it's OK.

We will keep it open until it is tracked upstream.

[ferrolho]

Hi! I have just installed ROS 2 (Galactic) for the first time on my machine (Ubuntu 20.04). I am also a user of ZSH, and for some reason the autocomplete isn't working; but it works on the Bash. Some more info:

➜  ~ zsh --version
zsh 5.8 (x86_64-ubuntu-linux-gnu)

➜  ~ which _bash_complete
_bash_complete () {
	local ret=1 
	local -a suf matches
	local -x COMP_POINT COMP_CWORD
	local -a COMP_WORDS COMPREPLY BASH_VERSINFO
	local -x COMP_LINE="$words" 
	local -A savejobstates savejobtexts
	(( COMP_POINT = 1 + ${#${(j. .)words[1,CURRENT-1]}} + $#QIPREFIX + $#IPREFIX + $#PREFIX ))
	(( COMP_CWORD = CURRENT - 1))
	COMP_WORDS=($words) 
	BASH_VERSINFO=(2 05b 0 1 release) 
	savejobstates=(${(kv)jobstates}) 
	savejobtexts=(${(kv)jobtexts}) 
	[[ ${argv[${argv[(I)nospace]:-0}-1]} = -o ]] && suf=(-S '') 
	matches=(${(f)"$(compgen $@ -- ${words[CURRENT]})"}) 
	if [[ -n $matches ]]
	then
		if [[ ${argv[${argv[(I)filenames]:-0}-1]} = -o ]]
		then
			compset -P '*/' && matches=(${matches##*/}) 
			compset -S '/*' && matches=(${matches%%/*}) 
			compadd -Q -f "${suf[@]}" -a matches && ret=0 
		else
			compadd -Q "${suf[@]}" -a matches && ret=0 
		fi
	fi
	if (( ret ))
	then
		if [[ ${argv[${argv[(I)default]:-0}-1]} = -o ]]
		then
			_default "${suf[@]}" && ret=0 
		elif [[ ${argv[${argv[(I)dirnames]:-0}-1]} = -o ]]
		then
			_directories "${suf[@]}" && ret=0 
		fi
	fi
	return ret
}

[evshary]

@ferrolho I've tried the same patch in Galactic, and autocomplete doesn't work.
I'm not really sure what happens, but maybe you can temporarily use Foxy instead.

[paolotherocker]

Hi, I'm having the same problem as @ferrolho with zsh version 5.8, and with both Foxy and Galaxy I'm unable to tab complete anything with the ros2 command.

I will add that zsh can tab complete parameters with any command except ros2.
For example apt se<tab> will produce apt search, but ros2 lau<tab> will not complete to ros2 launch

[CALMorACT]

I meet the problem also both Foxy and Galactic. The patch didn’t work either. also zsh is 5.8,